JBaker

The National - High Violet Nothing dangerous or ground-breaking here, just nice melodic, accessible, slightly melancholic US indie with some lovely baritone vocals. Perfect chilled out listening for a serene late night. 'Wall-to-wall bangers' might not be a particularly appropriate description for this record, but it is a pretty faultless collection of tunes.

Deafheaven - Sunbather

The Gallows - Grey Britain Snotty, pissed off, theatrical UK punk rock. Faultless!

Sonic Youth - Goo

System of a Down - S/T I still say the unhinged weirdness and the unpolished, punk rock aggression, employed within the wider pop context, makes this their best album.

Of their more traditional black metal works' date=' I would start with Memoria Vetusta I - Fathers of the Icy Age, and for their more modern/dissonant sound, start with The Work Which Transforms God.[/quote'] Cheers BAN. Will probably start with their modern, more dissonant sound. I seem to prefer more proggy, technical BM to the traditional stuff, and as far as I understand, Blut Aus Nord went more in this direction as they went along. So thanks. NP: Sigur Ros - Takk Really digging the chilled stuff atm. Might have more of a metal day tomorrow.

Btw, BAN, I've been getting a little more interested in black metal recently, and I'd like to try and get into Blut Aus Nord, and for some reason I figured you might be the guy to ask about where to start?

Deftones might fit it better than others' date=' but I still don't hear much in the way of metal in their sound. Tool is more metallic, but I don't hear any alternative in their sound.[/quote'] I concede your point about Tool to some extent, though I do see where the comparison to bands like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden comes from, and I think that's perhaps why the 'alternative' tag follows them. But, in all honesty, I hear no less metal in Deftones' sound than in Faith No More's sound. Particularly their latest one, KNY - that shit's practically a simplified Isis with Chino on vocals, as far as I'm concerned! Ok, maybe that's going a bit far, but there's definitely a big post-metal vibe to that album.

65daysofstatic - The Fall of Math More awesome post-rock! Mogwai meets Aphex, with some - I wouldn't call them heavy, but certainly pretty loud and explosive riffs. Again, definitely on the uplifting, life-affirming side of the genre. Someone described it as sounding like a computer that generates post-rock being affected with a virus and still trying to carry on, despite the glitches. Pretty apt description, imo!

What's metal about those? Just sounds like radio rock/mallcore to me. I think the only band that justifies the "alternative metal" label would be Faith No More.

System of a Down - Toxicity

I'm a long time fan of Waters' music' date=' and I've been hearing great things about that one. Hopefully I'll be able to pick it up at some point.[/quote'] It's a good 'un. There's a nice death and doom vibe to the album, and the spoken word bits are legitimately creepy. NP: Neurosis & Jarboe - S/t Speaking of creepy shit...

Semantics' date=' the point was that he has a largely biased impression of a massive group of people based on first hand experience with a handful of them. It's a different class of xenophobia, but it is just the same.[/quote'] THANK YOU! The 'Islam is not a race' thing is 99% of the time a cynical attempt to derail the conversation and it's getting a bit fucking boring, if I'm honest. 'Wow, you're NOT racist? Here, have a gold star, you enlightened human being.' Bigotry is bigotry, and it all fucking sucks. Whether Islamophobia is racist or xenophobic is so irrelevant it's barely worth taking about and to act like you're occupying some kind of moral high ground because you don't believe you slot into the *exact* form of bigotry of which you're being accused just makes you an even bigger asshat IMO.

The Leviathan - Scar Sighted Definitely the nastiest, most unsettling thing I've heard come out of metal for a long time.

While She Sleeps - Brainwashed I genuinely think this band is the new generation's British answer to Machine Head.

Had a lovely afternoon sat in the sun listening to Swans' 'The Seer' on a pair of big, fuck off headphones, with the volume way up. Got to appreciate this mammoth of a record on a completely different level! Kicking off Spring the right way! Now: The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer

Before: Swans - To Be Kind Now: Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger After many years, I'm finally starting to appreciate this for the overlooked gem of 1990s rock music that it is. Great hooks that never border on syrupy and some of the riffs on this thing rival Sabbath at their best, imo.

Swans - Cop

The Leviathan - Scar Sighted Holy fuck.

Meshuggah - Koloss Of the 4 Meshuggah albums I own, this is by far my favourite. Don't understand why it gets shit on so much.

While She Sleeps - Brainwashed

Skin - World of Skin Michael motherfucking Gira, how I love you so. <3

I think, after Ill Nino, anything goes, really.

Hawk Eyes - Ideas Quirky mix of QOTSA, Mike Patton, At The Drive-In, Mastodon, Dillinger and a host of other stuff. Just good anthemic heavy rock music that perfectly matches up the novel with the familiar.

Ill Nino - One Nation Underground The first signs of Spring start to appear, the Ill Nino records come out. It's become an annual thing. This is by far my favourite album from them. Whilst it does strike me as a little shallow and childish now, the match up of early Linkin Park and mid-career Soulfly is pretty fucking perfect on this one; considerably out-stripping both bands imo. The Jamey Jasta appearance definitely helps, too.